Follow Laurie McLaughlin as as she snorkels the barrier reef, explores a rainforest, immerses in aboriginal culture and crafts, and investigates native animals in Australia.

Friday, July 29, 2011

A Cairns Evening and the Great Barrier Reef

After our Thursday arrival into Cairns, we checked into The Heritage Cairns hotel and took a shower and a nap. Exciting start to our advneture :). Later we met with our host Laurie Priitchard for a walk around Cairns and a bit to eat before attending a reef marine lecture to get an idea about the things we may get a chance on our Friday adventure to the Great Barrier Reef.

Friday morning -- time to head for the reef.

Yesterday they were telling us how nice and sunny the weather had been the last week – so of course – today – cloudy and overcast. We walked from our hotel to the Esplanade and on to the boardwalk along the waterway. This is a beautiful walk with the water on one side and park areas and shopping along the esplanade.They have barbies set up with gas grills at the ready for public use and a really nice public pool.

We made it to our vessel, The Sea Quest, and got ready to start our day.Along with the cloudy day came a nice strong wind making the water a bit rough for the 1.5 hour trip out to the Great Barrier Reef.There were a lot of people “brown bagging it” - and I don’t mean bringing their lunch.Once we made it to our first dive/snorkel spot I got suited up.I chose to make 2 dives while my traveling companions, Marylin and Yvette, chose to snorkel.I donned my wetsuit, got geared up, and jumped in anxious for all I may find!The coral life was simply amazing.We spotted a Black-tipped reef shark resting on the bottom and a bit later another shark –not sure what kind- swimming amongst a small school of fish. Unfortunately, with the clouds and waives came poor visibility. I saw Nemo and several kinds of butterfly fish, parrot fish, and wrasses. Brain coral, staghorn coral, plate coral, and so much more! As my tank was running a bit low - I climbed aboard - removed my dive gear and joing my cohorts for a bit of a snorkel. The colors of the corals and the fish were amazing. After a quick lunch we moved to our next site with great expectations! Unfortunately, the visibility was even worse here. Once you got close - it was still remarkable- but the surges made it a bit dangerous to get too close. Regardless, it was still an amazing reef experince.

We tied up briefly to the Ocean Quest, the companies Live Aboard vessel, to off load a few of our passengers and to give a few others a ride back to Cairns. We got a chance to explore the boat. It seemed very comfortable with spacious outside areas, nice sized rooms with a great view, and a really nice bar area for relaxing. Then we settled in for the ride back to Cairns. On the way home, we spotted to humpback whales breaching - it was amazing!

This evening we had dinner at a local Greek Restaurant. Very entertaining and quite good food as well. Tomorrow - it is off for our first Rainfores adventure!